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Mandatory Conversion of PIO to OCI Card

Posted on: September 26, 2017 | Back | Print

The Government of India has withdrawn the Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) Card scheme vide Gazette Notification No. 25024/9/2014F.I dated 09.01.2015 and replaced it with Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) scheme. All PIO card holders are therefore required to get their PIO cards converted into OCI Cards. The conversion of PIO Card to OCI card is Gratis (free of cost) up to 31 December, 2017.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation will accept only machine readable travel documents from October 2018 onwards. It is therefore mandatory that all existing PIO cards (hand-written) must be converted into a machine readable OCI Cards as they will become invalid travel documents after October 2018.

Conversion of hand-written PIO Cards to Machine readable OCI Cards will be done on Gratis basis (free of cost) before 31 December, 2017 and applicants applying for conversion after this date will have to pay charges.

For more details about the OCI Scheme, kindly visit the website https://passport.gov.in/oci/